


The Hologram

by Nixie_DeAngel



Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DCEU, Justice League (2017)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth - Freeform, Also a minor mention of Martha Kent, Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, Barry Allen aka The Flash, Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman, M/M, Mention of the Following Characters, Mostly follows along the Justice League Movie, Victor Stone aka Cybrog, cause I've found myself incapable of writing Clark and not mentioning his mom, sad feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-07 21:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14680176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixie_DeAngel/pseuds/Nixie_DeAngel
Summary: It’s a few weeks later that Bruce finds himself muttering to himself as he flips through the few sparse notes he has on the weird creatures that’s been sighted in and around Gotham the last few weeks. “It’s something unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Bruce murmurs to the hologram, “Creatures from another world.”Snorting with a small shake of his head, Bruce closes the file before leaning back in the seat he’d dragged over and positioned directly in front of Clark a week ago. Bringing his free hand up, he scrubbed at his eyes before just holding the hand over them for a long, few moments.Or, Bruce is sad Clark is gone, so he builds himself a holograph machine to have Clark with him.





	The Hologram

**Author's Note:**

> Link to [incredible art](http://lord-yamada.tumblr.com/post/174021616701/title-the-holograph-author-nixie-deangel)!

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Letting out a ragged breathe, Bruce pauses, just kneeling there on the ground for a long moment before pushing himself up to stand, grimacing at the stiffness in his lower body. Closing his eyes, Bruce takes a few more deep breaths as he reaches into his back pocket, and tugs out the rag. He began scrubbing at the grease, trying to clean it from his fingers roughly. Tilting his head down, he watches as he rubs his skin, until it it's raw and pink.

He scrubs at his hands until they sting.

Until he can almost feel the skin begin to break, 'til he can almost feel bleed.

After a moment, he pulls the rough cloth back and bunches it up in his right fist. Taking one last breath, he forces himself to try and regulate his breathing as he bends over to flick the switch. As it turns on, Bruce slowly lets out a long drawn out breath, making himself straighten up. Looking up at the holographic image of Superman being projected in front him.

Makes himself look up at the image of Clark.

Feeling his chest tightening and his throat close up slightly; Bruce brings his left hand up to rub at it the skin just above where his heart was, letting out a faint snort as he does. He traces the curve of Clark’s jaw with his eyes, as he let his palm flatten against his sternum, pressing it firmly there. Swallowing past the lump, the sudden dryness, he drops the rag and slowly lifts his right hand up but hesitates just a few inches away.

He hovers for long moments before he shakes his head, and lets his hand drop back down to dangle uselessly by his side. Turning on his heel, Bruce strode away, back towards the darkness and away from the bright, gleaming image of Clark as Superman.

Backs away towards the darkness where he belongs.

Bruce tucks himself into the shadows of the Bat Cave; only turns his head around as he lets himself lean back against the wall, so that he had something propping him up as he simply stares at Clark from across the room. Settling in, he stays there and watches for hours before an alarm blares to life.

Calling him back to reality, back to the moment.

Taking one last breath, and one last look, Bruce forces himself to move over and turn the hologram off before striding off to go put on his suit.

 

It’s almost two weeks later before he lets himself go back to the dark corner where he’s stored the machine. But no matter how hard Bruce tries, he just can’t let himself squat down to flip the switch and turn it on. He simply spends the rest of the morning, before he’s to attend to business meetings, just staring down at the small black box as he kneels on the ground.

He fights with himself for almost another week after that before he finds himself slipping out of bed at nearly 3 in the morning, and heading down to the cave. He quietly creeps back to the corner as if he was afraid someone – Alfred – would catch him. He scolds himself as if he was a child sneaking a cookie from the jar before dinner. He can’t quite stop it as his breath catches as he kneels down in front of it and slowly, so slowly, extends his arm out and lets his hand hover above the switch.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce exhales slowly as he lets his fingers twitch, flicking the box to life.

But it takes nearly half an hour before he lets himself lift his head to stare up at the image.

Bruce stays just like that, just kneeling before Clark’s image, until Alfred ambles down with coffee and a reminder he as business to attend as Bruce Wayne that day. Bruce nods slowly as he takes the cup, silently thanking Alfred for not mentioning anything.

It’s nearly a month before Bruce finds the strength to step close once he turns his image on, a month before he can lift his arm and reach out and let his fingers dip in and graze along Superman’s cap. Sucking in a sharp breath, Bruce stumbles back until he trips over an up turned box, and collapses onto his knees.

Sucking in ragged breath, after ragged breath, Bruce can’t help as the apologies fall from his lips.

Desperate pleas for forgiveness, forgiveness that Bruce knows he’ll never receive.

Nor will he ever atone for it.

It’s a few weeks later that Bruce finds himself muttering to himself as he flips through the few sparse notes he has on the weird creatures that’s been sighted in and around Gotham the last few weeks. “It’s something unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Bruce murmurs to the hologram, “Creatures from another world.”

Snorting with a small shake of his head, Bruce closes the file before leaning back in the seat he’d dragged over and positioned directly in front of Clark a week ago. Bringing his free hand up, he scrubbed at his eyes before just holding the hand over them for a long, few moments.

 “This is like nothing I’ve ever seen, Clark,” Bruce mutters quietly as he lets slides his hand down his face before letting it dangle at his side. Bruce tilts his head back so that he can stare long and hard up at the ceiling for a few moments. He let his voice drop to rough whisper as he spoke next, “The Batman’s never faced anything like this before, and I don’t know if I can.”

He stays like that for a long while before pushing himself up and ambling over to the cot he’d tucked away in the shadows and climbed onto it to catch a few scant hours of sleep until he was needed.

Finally after a few hard nights, Bruce catches a break when he crosses paths with low level criminal and uses him as bait to lure the creature in. Only, Bruce doesn’t count on the thing exploding.

“Prep the jet, we’re going north tonight,” Bruce rasps out as he turns on his heel, hearing Alfred reply but he doesn’t acknowledge it. It’s not until he’s leaping on the ledge that he comes to a halt as his brain finally acknowledges the words the criminal is saying.

“It’s ‘cause they know he’s dead, right?” the man asks, his voice surprisingly steady despite all he’s just seen with his own two eyes and heard with his own ears. “It’s ‘cause _he’s_ gone.” The man hobbles the best he can, leaning forward but doing his best not to fall flat on his face as he asks. “Where does that leave us?”

Bruce just barely turns his head, acknowledging his heard bites his tongue to keep from lashing out at the sudden spike of anger, of hate he feels towards himself. He stays only a few seconds before he launches himself off the ledge and down towards the streets, letting his training take over while his mind simply shuts down.

Day’s pass before he lets himself come up, lets himself slowly regain his senses instead of simply running on autopilot.

Blinking slowly, Bruce tilts his head as his eyes flicker around, taking in the alien design of the Krypton ship.

Of the fluid Arthur is wading through, of the body that Arthur slowly lowers into it, pressing gently until Clark’s body begins to submerge.

Blinking once more it becomes a whirlwind of action and his mind once again becoming static until he’s being slammed back into the cop car and barely gasping out a plea, “Alfred, I _need_ the big gun.”

“You won’t let me _live_ ,” Clark rumbles out as he lifted Bruce up by his throat and floated them up away from the ground. “You won’t let me _die_.”

Clark’s eyes blazed with anger and hatred in away Bruce didn’t think Clark would be capable of if he were in his right mind. His voice is raspier, darker than Bruce had ever heard it be and he finds himself hating the way it sounds. The way Clark looks in this moment because this _isn’t_ the man he knew, the man he remembered.

“The world needs you,” Bruce struggles to get out as he scrambles to try and pull Clark’s hand away from his throat, even though he knows he can’t budge it.

“But does it _need_ you?” Clark askes as he tilts his head to the side as he narrows his eyes. His grip tightens around Bruce’s throat just a touch as he continues to talk. “Tell me, do _you_ bleed?”

Bruce felt his chest tighten in fear before he hears Martha Kent call out to her son, immediately getting Clark’s attention. Bruce barely braces himself as he finds himself being flung away and landing hard against the ground. Rolling until he’s flat on his back, he takes a moment to simply try and catch his breath.

Pushing himself up slightly, Bruce just barely catches sight of Clark carefully lighting his mother in his arms and flying them away.

It’s only after getting away from the cops and regrouping in the Bat Cave; Bruce finally lets himself process the last few days and everything that’s happened as Diana walks away after their chat. Taking a shuddering breath he moves over to fall down onto the first seat he comes across and he closes his eyes, spending the next few minutes trying to simply getting himself under control.

Gingerly, Bruce rolls his left shoulder, feeling the slight tug as he does so but otherwise finds it no more worse for wear. He’s dealt with worse injuries, so he knows he’ll be able to fight past the slight stiffness if he needs to when it comes time.

And it will come time, because Bruce knows the fight is coming.

He just hopes they’ll find Steppenwolf in time to try and stop him before he can destroy the world.

Which they do, thanks to Victor and Barry for finding where Steppenwolf was at and the team somehow coming together at the end. And for Clark, who came back when they needed him most.

Victor easily scoops up Barry, while Diana slings Arthur’s arm over her shoulder and the four are taking off, flying away from the impossible growth of flowers and green. Bruce swallows as Clark steps up and waits for Bruce to indicate that he’s ready to go.

Taking a quick breath, Bruce doesn't bother trying to steady his breath or his heart; it's futile because he knows Clark’s already picked up on them, so it's no use trying to mask them. Nodding once, he turns and lets the other man sweep him up in his arms before they too are taking to the air, heading back towards Gotham and the Bat cave.

 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

 

It’s almost a week later when Bruce finds himself standing on a dirt road in Kansas, as he watches Clark walk up to stand next to him, watching as men unload Martha’s belongs back into the Kent family home.

“Thank you, Bruce,” Clark can’t help as he smiles softly over at the other man, face earnest with just how grateful he truly is for Bruce getting his mother their home back. “I don’t know how we can thank you.”

“Just undid a mistake is all,” Bruce answered softly as he tucked his hands into his coat pocket. He shifted slightly towards the other but didn’t allow himself to sway fully into Clark’s personal space.

They stay there, standing in a slightly awkward silence before Clark finds himself needing to break the silence, to ask the question that’s been on his mind since he received the phone call from his mother, tearfully telling him they were getting the farm back. That they were getting their home back, “How did you get it back from the bank?”

Bruce vaguely looks slightly embarrassed as he clears his throat before haltingly answering, “I bought the bank.”

Clark looks stunned, his mouth opening slightly in shock as his eyes widen, “The whole bank?”

Clark sounds even more stunned then he looks, Bruce can’t help but note absentmindedly before he gives a little shrug as he answers. “It’s a slight reflex of mine.” Bruce carefully claps Clark on the back, tugging him towards the house where Martha was standing, holding a box and smiling fondly toward them.

 

 

Two months since Steppenwolf’s defeat, since Clark’s return, and Bruce has finally let himself into the side of the cave where he’d been keeping the hologram machine. With every step towards it, Bruce can’t help but feel his chest tighten. Grimacing as he brought his hand up and rubbed at the spot above his heart as he walked.

Pausing before it, like he’d done so many times, Bruce simply just stood there for a long time before crouching down, he flipped it on quickly before standing up and taking a large step back.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Bruce let his eyes trace the curve of Clark’s jawline, up to hsi sharp cheekbones before locking eyes with the image before him. Sucking in another breath, he rubbed harder at his chest as he let himself feel.

He tenses suddenly, when he feels something shift within the Cave, but he doesn’t turn around to look for the intruder because Bruce _knows_ who it is without having to see to confirm.

Because there’s only one person on the planet, in the universe that can make Bruce feel like he is, like he does.

“Shouldn’t you be in Smallville, with your mother?” he finds himself asking when more time passes and the other doesn’t say anything. “Or are you back in Metropolis?”

“What is this?” Clark murmurs quietly as he gently floats down, landing right next to Bruce.

“It’s what got me through,” Bruce rumbled out after a few moments. “It’s what kept me focused,” he tacked on after another beat of silence. “Some days, standing, sitting, kneeling right here was what helped me keep my mind focused on what I needed to do.”

Wetting his lips, Clark continued to stare up at the holo image of his own self, “And what was it that you _needed_ to do, Bruce?”

“Find a way to bring you back,” Bruce finally replies after a long moment. “To bring back the hope this world needs,” he tries to swallow but his throat is like sandpaper as he goes on, his voice catching on the last word, “The hope I need.”

Bruce clears his throat, shifting slightly so that he’s facing both the hologram and the real Clark. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“You never called,” Clark says instead of answering, his eyes still focused on the image of him. “I thought you would call but you never did,” he continues before turning his head to flick his eyes towards Bruce.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to,” Bruce answers as he furrows his brow at the younger man. “Clark,” he sighs out the other man’s name gently, “Why are you here?”

Clark sighs, eyes flicking to Bruce before going back to his image, “You brought Clark Kent back to life; for me.” He doesn’t ask, simply states facts. “You bought my family’s farm back, for me and you didn’t ask for anything in return.”

Bruce shifts again, back half a step as he lets out a huff of breath through his nose. “Clark.” He tries to sound stern, tries to stand firm, but Bruce knows it's not going to go well for him. He knows that Clark holds

“At first I thought it was your guilt eating at you,” Clark continues as if Bruce hadn’t said anything. “But then I was talking to Ma when a thought hit me.” He turns fully now to face the other man. Tilting his head back just the tiniest bit, Clark gives Bruce a small, half smile as he shuffles just the tiniest bit closer.

“Clark,” Bruce finds himself breathing out as he watches the other man slowly lift his hand up, moving it forward until he’s cupping the right side of Bruce’s face. “Clark you don’t-”

Clark swallows thickly as he gently swipes his thumb along Bruce’s cheekbone, “You never said anything before.”

“I couldn’t,” Bruce rumbled. “You and Lois hadn’t been separated long, when we met.” His eyes fluttered closed as he spoke. “I knew I didn’t deserve you then, I know I don’t know.”

“Bruce,” Clark whispered as he shook his head before leaning forward and quickly pressing their lips together. They stayed like that for only a few seconds before Clark pulled back and continued to swipe his thumb. “That isn’t for you to decide.”

“Clar-” Bruce went to speak before Clark moved back in, once again pressing their lips together.

They stayed like that for a long few seconds before Bruce tilted his head, angling their mouths together better and he began kissing back as he lifted his hands up, one curling around Clark’s hip while the other raked through Clark’s dark locks.

Slowly, Bruce walked Clark backwards until the younger man’s back hit the wall, jarring them slightly which forced them to pull apart.

Bruce rested his forehead on Clark’s, the other man’s breath ghosting along his lips as they panting slightly as they tried to catch their breath.

“We need to talk about this,” Bruce bit out quickly before Clark could move back in and try and capture his mouth. “We _have_ to talk about this, Clark,” he rumbled out firmly. “I need to know what this is.”

“This is me,” Clark started as he moved left hand up to grab at Bruce’s shirt and curl his fist around it. “Telling you I want you. In whichever way you are comfortable with.” He used his fist to slightly push Bruce back so they could look one another in the eye before continuing on. “This is me saying I _want_ you Bruce Wayne, want Batman. I want the man standing before me.”

Taking a deep breath, Clark let himself straighten up slightly. “All I need to know, is do you want me as well? Do you want Clark Kent and Superman?”

Bruce sucked in a quick breath as he let his hands tighten where he was gripping Clark. Jerking his head back, he stared hard at the other man for a long few moments. “I want you, Clark Kent, you and Superman, because you’re one in the same.” Uncurling his hand from Clark’s hair, he slides it down to cup Clark’s cheek, mirroring what the other was doing to him, and swiped his thumb along Clark’s lip.

“Good,” Clark breathed out before he knocked Bruce’s hand away and pulled the other man back in but before he could continue kissing the other, Bruce tilted his head away, causing Clark to let out a whine of frustration.

“But I want to, I need to do this right with you,” Bruce breathed out directly into Clark’s hear. “So I need this to go slow.”

Jerking back just the tiniest bit, Clark’s his lips stretch wide into a bright, almost blindingly large, blinding smile, “Yeah, yeah we can do slow.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [Nixie](http://nixie-deangel.tumblr.com/). Please don't be afraid to tell me what you think of this!


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